Knowledge Base

Video Slave

The Preferences

Video Slave 4 - The Preferences

Overview

General

MIDI I/O

Video Slave uses MIDI as its main interface to the "outside" world. In this section of the preferences, You can select the MIDI inputs and outputs for different kinds of MIDI information. In addition to the physical MIDI devices you have attached and the network MIDI devices you setup in Audio-MIDI Setup (more details about network MIDI
here ), Video Slave also offers virtual MIDI ports which can be used when running the application on the same machine that also runs the DAW. Select "Video Slave ... (virtual)" from the dropdown menu to create a virtual MIDI port. You can then select that port as destination from within your DAW (more details
here). We recommend using virtual connections when using Video Slave on the same machine as the DAW you're using.

MTC In / MMC InVideo Slave uses MIDI Timecode (MTC) and MIDI Machine Control (MMC) for synchronized playback and scrubbing. We recommend connecting both MTC and MMC if possible for the best user experience.

Trigger InAs you might already know, you can create and edit visual events directly within Video Slave. However, it will often be desirable to trigger visual events from e.g. your DAW rather than programming them into Video Slave. More details on the MIDI Triggers can be found in the Triggers preferences section below. Video Slave offers a separate input for the MIDI triggers which can be selected here.

Trigger OutWhen using Video Slave's ADR recording features, it will send MIDI events to the MIDI port selected here e.g. when recording starts and stops. This can then be used to trigger a punch light for example.

HUI In / HUI OutTo support looping in Pro Tools and for the direct Pro Tools integration when using the ADR recording features, Video Slave offers HUI connections to handle track-arming, muting and other features.

HUI StatusThese four status indicators show the HUI connection status of up to 4 HUI banks you can use to connect Video Slave to Pro Tools. Grey text means no connection while green text means that a connection was established.

Miscellaneous

Automatically Open Last Used Project on Application LaunchIf set, Video Slave will try to open the last used project when it launches. If the project can't be found at the original location (e.g. if it was on an unavailable drive, it will create a blank project instead.

Default Timeline Start TC / Default Timeilne DurationWhen you create a new timeline in the timeline tab of the main window, this is the default timecode and duration Video Slave will use. These values also used for the first timeline created automatically when creating a new project. Please make sure to choose a default start TC that is valid with all common framerates (00:59:58:29 won't work at 24 fps for example).

TC FreewheelEnter a value in frames here to define a number of freewheel frames. Freewheel will help to keep Video Slave's playback running if the incoming TC contains single unexpected values. If you get jumpy synchronized playback, try increasing the value here. Please be aware though that Video Slave will get less responsive to external TC changes if a non-zero value is set

Display

Go fullscreen on this screenWhenever going to fullscreen using the shortcut Cmd+Shift+F or by clicking the fullscreen icon in Video Slave's controller bar, the window will expand to the screen selected here.

Device ListThis list shows all video devices currently available in Video Slave. By default, there are at least two: Internal Video Device and Fullscreen Video Device. The Internal Video Device corresponds to the movie display in Video Slave's main window. The Fullscreen Video Device corresponds to the video display in Video Slave's fullscreen window. Other devices like Syphon, Blackmagic or AJA will also show up in this list if available.
Each display device in Video Slave can be enabled/disabled by toggling the switch on the left side of the item. Disabled devices won't render content. Disabling devices can make sense to improve Video Slave's resource consumption when playing back. It shall be mentioned though that there's typically no need to disable video devices in most cases.
You can also toggle visual overlays on a per-device basis by clicking the switch on the right side of each video device. Devices with overlays turned off won't render any visual overlays such as streamers & punches, markers, ADR cues and timecode/feet and frames overlay. When clicking the "Toggle Overlays Globally" menu item from the View menu, Video Slave will toggle the 'Overlays' switch on all devices in this list. When clicking the disclosure triangle of a device in the list, further settings are revealed:

Video / TC/Feet and Frames / Marker Events / Streamer Events / Flutter Events / ADR Cue EventsVideo Slave allows for an even more fine-grained control on what you want to see on which video device. Using these controls, you can give your voice talent a full set of overlays while you can have only a TC overlay for example. These checkboxes won't be affected when "Toggle Overlays Globally" is used

Projection DelayThis setting is only useful when using an output device like a projector. By setting a value here, you can adjust the projection delay certain devices introduce. If you choose e.g. 50 milliseconds here, Video Slave will playback the video 50 milliseconds earlier so that it aligns with a delayed projection while keeping the audio in place.

Video FormatThis setting is only available when using Blackmagic or AJA devices. Select your desired output device video format here. If the video format's frame rate doesn't match the timeline's video frame rate, Video Slave will not adapt the timeline's frame rate but just play out frames whenever requested by the device. So if you're using a device frame rate of 25 frames per second with a timeline frame rate of 24 frames per second, one frame of the timeline will be played out twice per second resulting in stuttery playback.

Automatically match timeline's frame rate and resolutionIf this checkbox is set, Video Slave will try to select an output format for the device that matches the timeline's frame rate and resolution. Video Slave can achieve the best results if the output device's frame rate and resolution are identical to the timeline's frame rate and resolution. Only then, no scaling and frame rate conversion needs to take place which can lead to display quality loss. If there is no video format that matches both the frame rate and the resolution of the timeline, Video Slave will try to match only the frame rate. If there's also no video format matching the timeline's frame rate, a follback display mode will be used.

Overlays

General

When an event is selectedWhenever you select an event, Video Slave will locate the playhead to either its start or its in point. This setting only applies for Streamer and ADR Cue event. The event start for these events is the first frame of the streamer. The in point is the frame drawing the punch, which is the last frame of the streamer event and the first frame of the actual cue in case of ADR cue events.

Fade from Black / Fade to Black at Timeline In/Out PointVideo Slave allows to define an in and out point per timeline. It is often desirable do a quick fade from or to black at the in or out points respectively. Choose the number of frames for this fade here.

Import/Export Overlay Settings

Video Slave lets you customize the overlays in a variety of ways. Depending on the overlay, there are settings for font, color, size and position. These settings are stored as user preferences on the machine where Video Slave is installed. However, it may be helpful to save and restore them if you're e.g. using Video Slave in another studio or if you simply want to make a backup. The Import/export settings button can be used to save the settings to a file or restore them from a file.

TimecodeVideo Slave allows you to superimpose a timecode or feet and frames overlay. There are several options for you to customize the look of it.

Show overlay asChoose what kind of overlay you want to see - timecode or feet and frames

FontClick the 'Font' button and select your preferred font for the overlay.

Overlay ColorSet the font color.

Background ColorVideo Slave can optionally display a background underneath the actual overlay text. You can choose the color of that background banner here. If you want the text only, simply set the opacity of the color to 0.

Position / SizeWith the three sliders at the bottom of the window, you can adjust the size and the horizontal as well as vertical position of the timecode overlay.

StreamerStreamers (often also referred to as wipes) in Video Slave are visual cues that display a bar moving from left to right across the screen. At the very end of the streamer, an optional punch (colored circle) can be displayed.

ColorSet the color of the moving streamer. Can use an alpha component.

DirectionSet the direction of the streamer - left to right or edge to center.

Streamer finishes on barDisplay an optional bar on the right side of the screen that marks the end of the streamer. If this box is not checked, the streamer will end at the right edge of the display. Only applies if the streamers are moving from left to right.

Position / SizeDefine the vertical position as well as the bar width and the height of the streamer bar here.

Reference UnitStreamers in Video Slave can be time or tempo based. The reference unit can be changed application-wide with this setting. If the time reference unit is chosen, the streamer time is selected in terms of seconds. If the reference unit is set to "Time", the length can be chosen from a number of preset values, if the reference unit is set to "Tempo", the streamer length can be set in bars and you can also choose a tempo in BPM.

Default DurationDepending on the reference unit setting, you can set the default streamer duration here. This will be the default whenever you create a new Streamer event.

Play Audio BeepsCheck this box if you want to have audible beeps during the streamer. There will be 3 beeps for time based streamers and 4 times the number of bars beeps for tempo based streamers.

MarkerAnother type of visual cues in Video Slave are Markers. Markers are supposed to display a text overlaid over the movie for a defined number of seconds. You can use them to visually mark sections in the movie that need your attention, mark cue starts etc.

Text ColorChoose the color for the Marker overlays.

Background ColorSimilar to the TC overlay and ADR Cues, the marker text also displays a background banner underneath the actual text. You can choose the color here, alpha is also allowed.

Font
Select the font for the Marker event text here.

Default DurationAs with Streamers and ADR Cues, you can also choose the default duration for Markers. This value is preset whenever you create a new Marker event.

Position / Size
Choose the position and size of the Marker events here.

PunchPunches in Video Slave 3 are flashing circles. They are either displayed at the end of a streamer or a series of punches is displayed as a flutter event.

ColorSet the color of the punch.

SizeSet the size of the punch. You can choose between Small, Medium or Large.

Punch after StreamerIf this checkbox is set, a punch is displayed at the very end of each streamer event. This applies not only for standalone streamer events but also for ADR Cue events. If this box is not checked, the punch is omitted.

Default Flutter DurationA Flutter event is nothing else but a series of punches. Flutters can be used as a visual metronome for example. In this dropdown menu, you can define how many punches you'd like to have in a default flutter event.

Triggers

Although you can add all visual events directly in Video Slave or import them from a any of the supported file formats, it is often desirable to trigger visual cues through external MIDI events (e.g. from your DAW). These trigger events can be programmed in this table.
When you click the "+" button, a new row will appear with settings for the type of event you want to create when the trigger note is detected on the MIDI Trigger Input (streamer or flutter), as well as the MIDI note that should trigger the event, the duration and the color. If the reference unit is set to tempo in the streamer preferences (see above), then you can also select a tempo for the trigger here. Please be aware that these triggers may not be frame accurate when using video devices like Blackmagic and AJA.